Home invader, rapist gets life sentence plus 220 years

A 34-year-old Maryland man who forced his way into a Bethesda home, sexually assaulted a housekeeper and terrorized two residents at gunpoint was sentenced to life in prison plus 220 years in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Kevin Darnell Ray was convicted in April of 14 crimes in the case.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge David Boynton called Ray “a citizen’s worst nightmare” and said: “He’s the monster lurking in the darkness.” The judge said the “only appropriate sentence” for Ray was one without the possibility for freedom.

“He certainly isn’t a candidate for rehabilitation,” Boynton said, noting that it was “shocking” to him that Ray had served so little time for previous offenses, which included manslaughter and armed robberies.

The defendant had a lawyer during his trial but sat alone at the sentencing Tuesday, having chosen to represent himself. Broad-shouldered and with a beard and shaved head, Ray sat impassively while the judge expressed his disgust for his actions. He spoke briefly, questioning the prosecution but in the end telling the judge: “I’m good. You can go ahead and impose the sentence.” Afterward, Ray was led away by several sheriff’s deputies.

Ray has filed a request with the court asking for a new trial, according to court records.

In their sentencing memorandum, the prosecutors, Peter Feeney and Eric Nee, wrote that Ray has pending cases in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and the District, on charges including armed carjacking, rape, assault and bank robbery.

The prosecutors also made their case as to why the events that unfolded inside a Bethesda home on Jan. 11, 2012, were so horrific.

About 6:45 a.m., the housekeeper arrived at the home, just north of the National Institutes of Health. She went inside, got a street parking permit and opened the door to head back to her Ford Expedition. She didn’t get very far. Ray, wearing a balaclava mask, put a semi-automatic handgun to her head and forced her back into the house.

Then, according the prosecutors’ filing, he forced the housekeeper, a woman resident of the home, and the woman’s 14-year-old son into a bedroom. He pointed his gun at all of them. He ordered the teenager to tie his mother’s hands using a bathrobe belt. The boy purposely did a poor job, according to the prosecutors, which angered Ray, who tied up the woman’s wrists himself. He also tied up the boy’s hands with a karate belt.

“The defendant then shouted that he would shoot them if they talked,” the prosecutors wrote.

Ray stole debit and credit cards. He then forced the housekeeper into a bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to prosecutors.

In their court papers, Feeney and Nee cited “overwhelming evidence” from the trial, including DNA analysis and video surveillance of Ray using one of the victim’s stolen debit cards to get money from an ATM at the Bethesda Metro Station.